Here’s Why The U.K. Beat The U.S. To Approve A Covid-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use

Topline

Amid intense pressure on U.S. regulators to approve a Covid-19 vaccine at “warp speed,” including from an impatient President Donald Trump himself, the U.K. has pulled off a major coup and become the first country in the world to authorize a vaccine for emergency use based on clinical data, raising questions as to when the Food and Drug Administration will approve the vaccine for a disease that has killed over 270,000 people nationwide. 

Key Facts

Key Background

Britain’s vaccine coup will likely frustrate Donald Trump, who has been desperate to claim vaccine successes as personal victories, even if he and his administration’s Operation Warp Speed scheme to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine have had nothing to do with its development, as is the case with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. This will be exacerbated by the fact that one of the two developers, Pfizer, is an American company (BioNTech is German). With Moderna and Pfizer releasing successful trial data, Trump has been piling the pressure onto the FDA to approve the vaccines for emergency use as soon as possible, reportedly going so far as to summon commissioner Stephen Hahn to the White House for questioning on Tuesday. Unperturbed, Hahn calmly and publicly explained that this must be done “the right way.” 

Crucial Quote 

In announcing the decision to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, chief executive of the U.K.’s medical regulator, Dr. June Raine, stressed that “the public’s safety has always been at the forefront of our minds” adding that the organization is “globally recognised for requiring high standards of safety, quality and effectiveness for any vaccine.”

What We Don’t Know

States are largely free to distribute vaccines as they wish, though there is central guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending priority for medical workers and the staff of care facilities. 

Further Reading

Pushed to rush, FDA head says feds will get vaccine ‘right’ (AP)

U.K. Approves Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 Vaccine, The First Country To Do So (Forbes)

U.K. Approves Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine, a First in the West (NYT)

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